Christmas is long over, the year in full swing with the business of life compressing us relentlessly towards the end of the year. The sun is shining, our clocks have moved forwards, and a new liturgy is upon us. Easter and the great British get away, with 20% of the UK population due to travel away.

With Christmas having so little to do with Jesus anymore, and Easter now one of our biggest national holidays, I do wonder if Christians could move Advent and Easter to a different time of the year.

A friendly local shop owner told my wife last year how excited she was that her nephew was old enough to understand the real meaning of Easter. Momentarily my wife was excited that her witness had borne some fruit in her friendships locally. That was until the shop owner continued …'you know, chocolate and the Easter bunny'. Its up there with what I thought was an urban legend, but is likely to be a common occurrence, where my brother and his wife overheard two young women in a shop remark one to the other, 'look there's a cute little man on this necklace'.

Let Christmas and Easter be what they have become in a secular context; secular public holidays and consumer festivals. Maybe we could make something more of Advent and Easter by celebrating them at another time of the year?

And yes I am aware that Orthodox churches Easter date usually falls at a different time. But if we were looking for a time in the year, not co-opted by some other secular liturgical calendar of public holidays and consumer festivals, when could Advent and Easter be celebrated by Christians?